29. Sandro
Sandro
“S tay inside me,” Hades whispered as we ran from Hermes.
“Why?” I asked.
He didn’t answer. He just kept going.
Something blurred in our peripheral vision, and we toppled to the ground. Our hand came up to our head, and Hades let out a muffled groan.
When we looked up, Hermes was there, lifting a staff above his head to clobber us again.
Hades sat up and put his hand in front of us. His Sais appeared and took the brunt of Hermes’ swing.
The thief fell back, and we jumped up, but when we tried to stab Hermes, he flew away.
Hades threw a dagger his way and legged it across the dark valley where a body of water glowed white.
I didn’t know what he was planning, and I didn’t know what anything I was seeing was. Walking into the Underworld had given me stronger and bigger visions. Visions that had led me to the pomegranate tree I’d seen before, but I didn’t know why I was there or what I was meant to do.
Thankfully, Hades had appeared at the right time, but I still didn’t know what the plan was. So, all I could do was be a passive observant.
Hermes blurred past us and tried knocking us down again, but Hades threw his other dagger, and it clung to Hermes’ staff, sparks erupting where the metal met.
Despite that, Hermes was undeterred. He took another swing, and we stretched our hands to our sides, the Sais appearing in them again and stopping Hermes’ brutality.
“I can help,” I said through Hades.
The god of thieves was relentless. He didn’t stop. He tried over and over again. Tried to club our head open, to land a fatal blow, anything, yet Hades wouldn’t let him.
“Help? Help me with what?” Hermes answered, thinking I was talking to him.
“No,” Hades groaned.
As much as Hermes tried to overpower us, we didn’t stop moving, edging toward the body of water.
The two gods came to a deadlock. Hermes grimaced, grinding his teeth, putting all his strength on his staff, but we kept strong. Still, Hermes wouldn’t relent.
I pushed my leg out of Hades and kicked the god of thieves in the nuts. He bent over in pain. I knew Hades had told me not to get out for whatever reason, but he clearly had a plan, and unless we stalled Hermes, it would never come to fruition.
Hopefully, he hadn’t noticed, but so what if he had?
Hades took the opportunity to shorten the distance between us and the water, and the closer we got, the clearer I could see it.
It wasn’t exactly white. It wasn’t even exactly water. If anything, it looked like a fog that flowed like water, and a hum emanated from it that made our ears ring.
“What are we doing?” I asked.
“Not now—” he started, but we came crashing facedown on the river bank. There was a crack, and Hades groaned, bringing our hand to our nose.
“I don’t know how you think you can escape me or where you think you’re going, but it ends now.” We turned and saw Hermes standing behind us, unfazed by the chase and the fight, floating above ground like a fucking angel.
Hades spat on the ground, and Hermes smirked.
“I don’t know how you’re staying alive without your mate…I admire your resilience. But your time is up. You can fight it all you want, but sooner or later, you’ll be dead. Just accept it. I’m the new king of the Underworld, and there’s nothing you can do to change it,” he said.
“Fuck you,” Hades responded. “You’re no king. You’re a fraud. You’re a scam. You cheated your way onto the throne, and you’re phoning it in, too scared to admit you’ve bitten off way more than you can chew.”
“I didn’t?—”
“You don’t even know the secrets of your castle, the secrets of your world.”
Hermes’ smirk softened as he bit his cheek and pursed his lips.
“How could I? You trapped me in Styx for thousands of years. I spent all that time alone. In the darkness. Do you know how fucked up that is? To spend eternity swimming in a fucking river, floating between worlds, never able to step into one or another? Never able to speak to anyone but Thanatos and Hypnos. To not have the freedom to do what I wanted?”
Hades huffed.
“I don’t know if I mentioned it already, but…I don’t give a shit about your life.”
“Well, now you don’t have to. Because you’re about to die. And look who made that happen? Me. The ferryman of the dead. So screw you and screw your secrets. I made it happen. Me !”
Hades laughed.
Hermes blinked. “Wh-why are you laughing? Is your demise funny to you?”
We shook our head.
“No. But if you had taken the time to learn just the smallest thing about my world, you’d know…” We turned around and put our hand into the mist.
It was wet to the touch and so lukewarm it didn’t feel like we were touching anything.
We cupped our hand and threw a splash of the fog behind us.
“…what this river does,” Hades shouted as the fog splashed all over Hermes’ face, and he fell back.
When he opened his eyes, he shook his head and looked around.
“What…who…where am I?” Hermes asked, the hatred and ruthlessness all gone.
We clambered to our feet and ducked toward Hermes’ feet.
“You’re at River Lethe, asshole,” Hades shouted, grabbing the wings of Hermes’s sandals and ripping them off.
Hermes screamed as if we’d pulled apart his very feet. We stood and threw the dead wings to the side and bent to grab Hermes’ staff, when the god of thieves’ scream turned into a growl.
“You’ll pay for this,” Hermes shouted and raised the club at Hades, knocking us on the head.
We stumbled to the side but as Hermes tried to hit us again, we ducked out of its way and grabbed his hands, raising them above our head.
“How did you like the water of Lethe? Would you like to forget who you are for good? Because I can drown you in it, and you’ll never know who you were ever again!” Hades rasped.
Wait, was that his plan? To make him forget who he was?
“Why didn’t it work?” I asked.
“Because I’m a king!” Hermes answered.
“It worked long enough to level the playing field,” Hade answered.
We kicked Hermes between the legs again, and with the club freed from his grip, Hades used it to bash him over the head.
“Wait,” I said.
Hades didn’t listen. He swiveled again and again until blood appeared on Hermes’ head.
Hades laughed. “It’s not fun when you can’t run like the wind, is it?”
“Hades, wait. Don’t kill him!” I said and came out of his body, stepping between him and Hermes.
“Sandro, don’t!” The club passed through me and collided with Hermes again, delivering the fatal blow, and the eyes of the thief god rolled back. “Finally. Why did you do that, Sandro? He had to die…”
He stepped forward when the ground shook, and he lost his footing. Hermes’ body glowed, threads appearing from everywhere around him, covering him in a cocoon that glowed gold.
Hades conjured his Sais and slashed at it, but it sent him flying back and almost into the River of Forgetfulness.
“What the chaos—” he said as he tried to get back to his feet.
“He can’t die, Hades,” I said as the threads disappeared, and Hermes stood alive and well before us yet again.
Hermes smirked and looked from me to Hades.
“You think your lover’s thread was the only one I stole?” he asked Hades and laughed out loud.
“What?” Hades muttered.
“You can’t kill me, cousin. No matter how hard you try, you can’t kill me. I’m in charge of my own fate. You, on the other hand? You are dead.” Hermes twirled his fingers, and the club disappeared from Hades’ hands and reappeared in his.
“No!” Hades shouted.
“And you.” He turned to me. “You can return to your world until the Wraiths come get you.”
He pointed at me, and I watched as the blue flames unfurled toward me.
Shit.
Maybe that’s why Hades hadn’t wanted me to come out of him.
Why hadn’t I listened to him? Why had I come out?
Now, there was nothing I could do as everything we’d worked hard to accomplish, everything we’d done to take back our lives, had been futile.
I closed my eyes.
I closed my eyes and waited for the end.
The real end this time.